St-John’s
Catholic Church

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

Scripture Readings	At The Procession With Palms	MT 21:1-11
	At The Mass	IS 50:4-7
	Responsorial Psalm	PS 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
	Reading 2	Mt 21:1-11
	Gospel	Mt 26:14—27:66 or 27:11-54

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome to this Sunday’s reflections on the Word of God. More than just reading anything that pops up on your screen, this reading brings you a very special message - the Spirit of the Gospel.

Lend me again your listening hearts, accompanied with an ounce of your patience. (I’m hoping you have enough patience to read the long readings today!)

But before we go into our reflections, let me point out first the significant points in each of the readings that calls my attention during the proclamation of the Word.

First Reading

The Palms
This reading is usually proclaimed at the entrance of the church. Those of you who are familiar with this part, I usually do this around the patio of the rectory. I was hoping I could let you in and show you the garden once again this time. But I guess you are more interested in getting your palms blessed and taking them home. Unfortunately, this is not happening at all during this time because of the Pandemic. Our Bishop advises us to bless the palms some other time and for sure you can have them brought to your houses as you used to in previous years.

Social distancing requires us to put on hold this practice in the meantime. As you and I know this part of our liturgical celebration is one of the most significant participation on Palm Sunday. It would not make sense to us calling this Palm Sunday when we don’t use palms anymore. Right? To be able to appreciate this Sunday’s reflections without the palms, I invite you to relive your last year’s experience when we did this part of our liturgy. After I had blessed the palms, I gave them to each of you and together we processed into the inside of the church while you were busy yourselves waving your palms!

Thanks for participating! By receiving the palms and having them blessed, you simply have accomplished a very significant gesture of receiving our Lord into your hearts and enthroning him as your King and Savior. This is the reason you continue to walk while we process and keep our palms waving. It is of paramount importance for us today that our understanding of Jesus as Our Lord and King is without equivocation that He is our God and Savior. We do not take Him as anyone of worldly power and kingship but one who has dominion over all on earth. When we sing to Him hosanna in the highest, we exactly acknowledge the same authority He has during the mass as part of the Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy. (CCC 439, 559)

Second Reading

The Name
One of the cherished traditions in our church is the devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus. This devotion is rooted on the Second Commandment as a reminder that it is through him that we receive all blessings. This feast is usually celebrated on January 3. (CCC 187-197, 201,434- 435,635,2812)

St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians urges the community to honor Christ’s name and to model their lives to him, “he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, death on the cross.” (Ph 2:8) This death on the cross is a great scandal to the unbeliever who cannot accept the spiritual dimension of the sufferings of Our Lord. Our faith teaches us that the Lord accepted this suffering knowingly and willingly because it was the will of his Father and out of love for us. It was through his obedience that our redemption is achieved. (CCC 411,564,612,623, 908)

The Gospel

The Mystery
In the mass we proclaim the paschal mystery: “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.” This proclamation is our testimony to the world what we truly hold unto our hearts if we are asked to give up everything in this life. This is a mystery prefigured at Passover when God delivered his people from slavery. Using Moses, He delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh. At first Pharaoh refused to let them go. So, God sent ten plagues—the tenth being the death of all firstborn sons. Although the plague would have impacted everyone, God provided the way for Israel to be saved. All those who put the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their homes were “passed over” by the angel of death, and the lives of their firstborn sons were spared. The death of Pharaoh’s firstborn son drove him to release the Israelites, and God delivered them with a mighty, outstretched arm.

St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians recognizes Christ as the true lamb of sacrifice, “For Christ our Passover Lamb also has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Every time we celebrate mass we receive the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate unblemished Lamb to which all the Passover lambs pointed. Christ Our Lord saves us! We can let go of everything except Him.

Application

Our fervent hope today is to “passover” from this pandemic and be able to move on to our normal way of living. Unfortunately for some of us who love to go out and celebrate life in crowded places this isn’t easy. Personally, I miss our coffee and donuts in the hall. I think many of you would feel the same.
The First Reading today reminds us of a true freedom. The fruit of this freedom is joy. We are truly happy when we can join in celebrations with our family, friends and community. The waving of palms (that we missed at this Sunday’s mass) is a reminder that true joy and peace can only be achieved with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nobody knows the answer when this crisis is going to end. We just realize that this ineptitude exposes us of our very limited understanding of the many realities in this world. In the meantime, while we wait for our scientists to come up with the vaccine, our greatest challenge is how can we make use of our resources to bring us altogether to the end of this pandemic. St. Paul offers a fundamental option in response to this question.

In his letter today to the Philippians, he exalts our Lord Jesus Christ because of his great humility. Even “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Ph 2:8) By becoming a servant to all Our Lord Jesus was able to fulfill his mission as savior of us all. This opens our eyes to the greatest opportunity in this time of need, to be of service to one another. This need takes various forms. Besides the obvious need to provide shelter, food and medicines other needs are in the form of comfort, encouragement, consolation and prayers.

Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us the way to be able to walk with everyone’s cross by becoming like us except sin.

Today’s readings invite us to reflect on the following:

• 1.) What sort of freedom have I discovered so far while faithfully observing the shelter in place order?
• 2.) Do I wait with great anticipation to “passover” this pandemic by sealing myself with the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord through spiritual communion?
• 3.) Have I invoked the Most Holy Name of our Lord Jesus to protect myself from this pandemic? Have I given in to my fear of Coronavirus more than the fear of offending the Most Holy Name of Jesus?
• 4.) What’s in my way that stops me from being of service to the needy in this time of crisis?

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Fr. Roy
Pastor
St. Johns Catholic Church

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we navigate through this uncharted territory of our time, let us continue to pray and nourish ourselves by actively participating in religious activities and liturgical celebrations that I deem necessary for our spiritual life.

Daily: I would like you to join me remotely in praying the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary at 1:00pm. Please continue with this until the end of the pandemic.

Wednesdays through Sundays (right after the Holy Rosary): I will offer your intentions by celebrating Mass in private. Please refer to our website as to which intentions are scheduled.

Sundays: Scripture Readings & Reflections

Beginning Good Friday: we will start the Novena Prayers to the Divine Mercy. I ask you to join me and follow the timeline that will come out next weekend.

I encourage everyone to check their emails or our website for any updates. If you know of someone who would enjoy receiving these updates, please email contact@stjohnsfelton.org or call the office 831-335-4657 with their email address.

Important Links:

To supplement our religious and liturgical celebrations with a live streaming Mass, please visit: mass-online.org

It is important that you pay attention to these activities and follow the changes closely so that you feel connected to the Mystical Body of Lord Jesus Christ, truly present and alive in our church.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Fr. Roy
Pastor
St. Johns Catholic Church